Nelson City Council

Read about what Council will be delivering to the community for Rugby World Cup 2011.

Financial commitment

Council has a financial commitment of $1.7 million, including a budgeted $100,000 contribution from Tasman District Council, for Rugby World Cup 2011. Here's how that expense breaks down.

Find out more about Council's financial commitment to RWC 2011.

Preparations for RWC 2011

Find out what Nelson City Council is doing to prepare the city for Rugby World Cup 2011 ... from Trafalgar Park upgrades to Saxton Field to the Heart of Nelson Strategy upgrades to the city centre.

Steering Group

The RWC 2011 Nelson Steering Group has a mission to involve as many residents, businesses and visitors as possible in the celebration of Rugby World Cup 2011 in Nelson. Learn about the Steering Group and find out who's involved.

Sustainability

Nelson City Council has committed to minimise environmental effects of holding this major event in its region. Council aims to prepare a RWC 2011 Sustainability Plan to provide for the overall management of this aspect of the event.  The plan would include objectives, policies, actions, measurements, monitoring, reviewing and reporting systems. Council is also a partner with Tournament Organisers Rugby New Zealand 2011 and will aim to follow the organisation's lead in a national sustainability programme.

Council's objectives for the sustainability plan are to:

• Minimise carbon emissions with efficient transport
• Minimise greenhouse gas emissions
• Minimise resource consumption and waste
• Manage water resources efficiently

Turf replacement a sustainable venture

Preparations began in June 2009 to replace Trafalgar Park's turf with a sustainable, user friendly material to enhance drainage: recycled glass made into sand-like particles. Choosing recycled glass over sand presented many benefits. Approximately 2,800 tonnes of the material has been installed on the turf, which is starting to grow grass now in late summer 2010.

While sand is the more common material for construction of sports fields, recycled glass saves on cost because natural supplies of sand that meet the specific grading and chemical composition required for sport stadiums are becoming very rare and are more expensive. As supplies of natural sand dwindle, future turf dressing and maintenance costs are likely to increase. With glass sand, there is an almost guaranteed supply.

Using recycled glass sand also saves the natural sand that would have to be taken from New Zealand river beds to carpet the turf.

Users will not notice a difference as to how the field performs during sports events because recycled glass mimics the benefits of sand over a traditional soil turf, which Trafalgar Park has had. The new turf will allow rainfall to drain quickly from the grass carpet above it into a subsoil drainage system.

A sustainable approach to upgrading

With the $5.9m refurbishment of Trafalgar Park into a multi-event venue fully underway, Council and its contractors have made significant efforts toward keeping the upgrade green using a variety of activities. Here are a few of the ongoing works taking place during the upgrade that are helping keep Nelson green.

Transport of the recycled glass sand

Creating a new sand based turf from recycled glass sand has been an environmental achievement all by itself, but Council didn’t sit on its laurels with just that effort. Transporting the sand from Christchurch might normally be a costly effort but contractors have moved the sand on backloads that would otherwise be empty but are making the trip anyway. This not only saves Council expense, but doesn’t use extra diesel, extra truck runs or other resources.

Sand bags to be recycled

The 2,800 bags containing all the recycled glass sand are made from a completely recyclable material. It’s more likely they’ll be reused first by contractors who find the size and material useful for other construction activities.

Reuse of cut to waste material

The cut to waste material is all the dirt and topsoil that is dug up from the existing turf to create the drainage trenches for the new turf. Rather than send it all to landfill, creating transport issues as well, it’s being reused onsite to reshape the northern embankment. The rocky waste material is being used to raise the existing embankment and fill in all of the humps and hollows. The finer topsoil waste material is being used to redress the surface of the embankment so that new grass can be sowed. It’s estimated that this is saving about 1,500 truckloads of transport and diesel resources and enhancing the embankment area in the process.

Reuse of existing turf and grass

The existing turf was removed and cropped, a process that turns it into a mulch-type material, and it will be used as fertiliser at Neale Park.

Future proofing

The work under the turf has been extensive, including planning for drainage, electricity and communications. All equipment has been future proofed for 30 years or longer, this way the pitch won’t have to be dug up to replace these materials before their life is over. It costs a bit more up front, but will save a lot of money in the long run by deferring any pitch excavation to replace minor parts. Also extra empty ducts have been installed so that new cables can added in the future without digging up the new turf.

Use of readily available, recycled and sustainable building materials

Sustainable building materials such as timber will be used as often as possible in the upgrade.